Sri Ramana Maharshi - me

Sometime in the late eighties I used to live in the Mission District of San Francisco. I had rented an artist studio sharing with another artist on Army and Mission Avenues, kitty corner from the Hospital where my daughter was to be born some years later. It was in this building that i experienced the Loma Prieta Earthquake in San Francisco. The building was once what used to be the Sears Roebuck Mall but was abundant and leased out to Artists living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Anyway before i drift off into a more detailed rambling of the setting, I best move on with the story that i intend to share with my readers and that is my encounter with one of the most revered of Saints, Shri Ramana Maharshi. 

I encountered Maharshi when I went to eat a the 'Good Karma Cafe' on Dolores within the view from the Mission Dolores the iconic Catholic Church. The Good Karma was a vegetarian restaurant and I enjoyed having my meals there whenever i can afford it. It was a small cafe with an old piano set against one wall nd above the piano was this large colored photo of Sri Ramana Maharshi staring down at me in the most compassionate manner that I wondered who this old Hindu Yogi was, he made me fill at home, welcomed and I always find a seat to face him whenever i could. Later i found out who He was and how his life and teachings has affected me, and how it has affected the spiritual world of the twentieth century. Don't take my words for it; google it. For mankind in general it is wise to learn about the great Minds of our time and what they has to say especially those who came in the form of Healers of body mind and spirit.

The question is not if you are a Hindu, a Buddhist or a Christian a MUslim or a host of other thoughts and beliefs that matter, it is in knowing who you truly are that is paramount for you to discover. Who is I? Who is me? Ame I merely an atomic particle all bunched up together by gravity and some other unknown and known forces of the cosmos, or am I the divine spirit that manifest in this human form through a series of  stages. In Islam man exists in four different dimensions for lack of better word; that of the Alam Ghaib or the world of the unseen, the realm of emptiness, a formless world of souls, before we are sent down to our next realm and that is of the womb, nine months later he or she is being born into our dimension the world of mental formations, then we die and enter the realm of the dead and what happens next. Whether I am an atom or a spiritual entity, formles manifesting in this human form or a combination of both, I am still a living entity occupying time and space in this what the Buddha called the Nirmanakaya Loka, while in this phenomenal dimension of existence, the human mind is a slippery character that needs to be understood thoroughly by every human being who owns one.

Al Insan Kamil I translate to be 'The perfect soul' in human form and they evolved through  time and space to help humanity to move forward in a more positive and harmonious ways as in Buddhist terminology, to awaken or to attain liberation, or as in Islam to return to the Source, the owner or keeper of the souls, Al Hak. Today we have these souls teaching us, reminding us, healing us, making us aware of our awareness, these are the contemporary Yogis of the human mind, body and spirit. The mechanics and researchers of our 'inner engineering', our biological and spiritual functioning, with the emphasis on bringing a perfect balance of all the fundamental elements that makes us up for as long as we live.

Sri Ramana Maharshi, may not have appeared to me in person, but his presence is like the presence of a caring grandpa over a soul seeking child lost in his own self generated delusions about the nature of true beingness, being who I am; Namaste to my Guruji. Thank you for sharing with the world Your presence and in imparting wisdom of the ancient in its most basic form that wise men and laymen alike can relate to.